Can’t believe it’s been a month since we were here on this great but limited sector (5 quality lines only!) but the weather has been awful. Proper minging meaning getting out on real rock has been frustratingly rare. Last time with Daniel we ticked the easiest 7a, This Won’t Hurt. Top quality, even if there was a 4mtr run out at the top (the clip stick wouldn’t reach!).

So, barely warmed up on the 6a, Pull ‘em Out to get up to the ledge, I start up the next line along, Unbroken, 7a. Dogging up it, it felt really hard, but not knowing the route and not being warmed up makes a difference. I should have trusted my instincts and pulled the rope through as a 2nd try top-rope redpoint was easy – just need to pull through and send it properly. Dan found some nice beta for the lower of the 2 cruxes, (on the black slab) and the whole route has some great moves in it. Three star quality, a tick for me, another addition to Dan’s project pending list. Next visit here should see us on the 7a+ to the left.

I have the upper Nomad wall pending (as too is Papágora, Esperó Primavera – maybe this summer?) so today’s the 1st day of ticking off the three star routes on this narrow wall. Instead of scrambling up the side at around Severe grade, we do the 6a on the lower wall and top out. Pull ‘em Out was only marginally better than the scramble.

This Won’t Hurt, 7a is the first to get my attentions. There’s three problems to solve, so after missing an onsight, I schoolboy-error myself out of a 2nd go send. Quite sustained, a nice climb. 6b+ obligatory.

Haven’t climbed here in years. But seemed a good introduction to Outdoor climbing, Sport variety for a couple of newb mates I taught to climb a couple of months back. Fifty visits to the climbing wall later, and they are up for getting on the reel stuff, so Horseshoe Quarry’s The Slabs sector was a perfect baptism. Easy and long routes on a nice slab – perfect.

C Man opens Slab Cake, 4+ and it’s not pretty. At times, there’s more kneecap than stealth rubber touching rock, and talk about disco leg?!.. After a couple of rests it’s done and the newly blooded warrior downs and bumps fists with the biggest smile I have seen. Ever. Nice job dude.

The Man J steps up and has a bit of a moment a third the way up.. but hey my brother, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

The Cake Walk, 5 was very nice and possibly a fraction easier than Slab. C Man earns his first onsight, and that’s it. He’s hooked. He’ll be a climber for the rest of his life now. Good to see.

So now that we’re all pro’s, we look for something a little more vertical. There’s an easy 4+ on the end of Africa Buttress. Sag Paneer though was not so giving as the last route. Before The War was a nice corner 5 before reins were handed over. Grab Your Mandrakes, and African were nice and ok respectively 6bs . Turf’s High which should be a 6a+ was I think the next route. The guidebook photo has it drawn a couple of metres to the right. Half way up the slab, there’s a loose block that I didn’t want to use, so it climbed harder than 6a+, but probably would be right.

Union Jack, 5 was the cool down climb as time and energy ebb. It was a little chossy, but it was a good day.

After the worst possible choice for a warm-up: I Love Bakewell Tarts! was dirty, hard and pulled apart in my hands leading to a nifty catch by Doug, and me getting showered with rock and mud. It also has all of its 6a+ difficulty in one move to get over the roof bit. Terrible line. But next to it, Problems Afoot, 5 wasn’t bad. After I get on Silencio, 6a+ which looked great, and climbed great too. Approach via a dodgy scramble up a static line for support. Meanwhile, the lads are playing on the easy routes on Insanity Wall, here Snoozalem, 5.

I wanted to try the two 35mtr routes on Orange wall, but couldn’t get close to the base of the crag for nettles and brambles, so I try what the guidebook called ‘another potential classic’ Sisters Of Oriza, 7a. This turned out to be 20mtrs of broken unstable crap followed by a nice 10mtr finale, which I fell on, anchors right above my head. On-sight denied on the very last move, quite annoying. Even though I’m a bit of a tick-whore, it’s not worth getting back on this to up my 7a send tally by one, but I will try Viva Les Bulles and Wolves Of The Calla.

After the false start to spring a while back, it feels now like it has really arrived. And nice to be back in the peak district, the most visited of England’s national parks. Wirksworth, just south of Matlock, has a couple of bolted quarries and this weekend we are at Intake. Mr C assures me we have climbed here before, but I couldn’t find anything in my extensive databases (logging all outdoor shenanigans since August 2010).

Solid company from Pete, Ryan and Doug, we actually didn’t expect to get anything done today with the rain forecast, but we squeeze out some nice introductions to predrilled limestone. I’m rocking the new(ish) Peak Limestone South, bought in September 2018, released 5 months earlier. Due to a mix up, I warm up on the short 6c Headline News, thinking it to be, and continuing up the 6a extension Heads Will Roll. With the boys playing on Twelve O’clock Nick, the 5+ to the left (very worthwhile, by the way), I make my way up the rather nice 6b, Add The Advil. And so, rain comes, but not for too long though. We bail still having to erect the tent, and everyone is happy. No climbing pics, but here’s an alternative use for the ever trusty clipstick:

It’s been a weird one for weather so far, it was cold, then hot, now cold again. Hoping for a summer like 2018 we try and get a start on outdoor fun up at Intake, in Wirksworth. I’m inducting two noobs into the joys of outdoor climbing so it’s a very easy day today. After a quick session on how to rethread on a shitty climb on Shot wall, we head over to some decent stuff on Darkness wall. The Clumps was a big fun 5 but the rock was so cold as to leave your fingers numb half way up. Great route though. Very, er, clumpy.

Now over to Runnel wall just over a bit to do 12 O’clock Nick, 5+ and El Sergio, 6a. Noobs spent, and fingers numb, we call it a fun but short day. Will be back here soon when the weather is warmer.

And so, the last day climbing for this trip; with a plane seat waiting for me at 5pm, I’m back at the relatively close town of Redován, next to Orihuela. While we were climbing yesterday, we chatted to an English couple who recommended a new crag called El Rut. Looking down from the base of the crag LaPancha, down over the pueblo, information was shared: Climbers’ café with crag topos, new crag’s location and parking, route quality.

Though I am now without my rope bud Faz, I rock up to the climbers’ café hoping to get a hook up. Inside the caf, on one long wall, there is the identical twin to the route-map sign marking the ascent trail to El Rut, just above the cemetery, a couple blocks over:

Boom, looks good.

I rock up to the crag and start identifying and checking lines. Two pair from the Club de Montaña, climbing the long excellent 6s right of the cave – the same nice folk that bolted the sector, invite me to join them. All Day Green, 6a was a very nice introduction to the rock: limestone, unpolished, solid/compact, sometimes sharp, grippy. It was 30 metres that could just go on for ever.

The second line I am gifted is another quality 30mtr 6a called Lagarto, and yes I did see one. It is a shame I fly home today, I would have loved to spend all day here. I’ll have to return.

Third and last line today I place their draws up the brill Toma Conejo Río. The 6a+ move comes at 20mtrs, around 2 third’s height, and is a nice crescendo from hardening climbing. After, a pleasant cruise to the anchors. What a nice day, a super crag, and an absolutely sound meeting of decent folk. Thanks for the include today Francisco and Maria, and thanks to all of the Mountain Club for developing the crag.